Driving seat: Is AAP leading forceful takeover of Punjab’s truck unions?

Truck unions are an unlikely place to flex political muscle. But it is exactly so in Punjab, where many leaders of the ruling AAP are reportedly using force to take over truck unions. The reason: truck unions are associated with muscle and money power and a dishonest union president can earn lakhs a year by way of cuts in government contracts.

These takeovers fly in the face of the AAP’s pre-poll promise of providing a corruption-free government.

During the last few months of the Congress government in Punjab, truck operators across the state had held dharnas and sit-ins demanding restoration of the truck unions that the government had dissolved after coming to power in 2017.

In December last year, as part of his party’s Punjab poll campaign, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had joined a transporters’ dharna in Mohali. Joining cause with the transporters, Kejriwal had said that if his party formed the government, it would revive truck unions and formulate a new transport policy for truckers’ welfare. Subsequently, the AAP ran an effective poll campaign blaming rival parties for patronising corruption and muscle power.

With the AAP’s historic win in Punjab, the tables have now turned. Forceful takeover of truck unions in several places in Punjab by leaders associated with the new AAP government, something that was a usual practice in previous regimes led by Punjab’s traditional parties – the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress – has made many wonder if this was the ‘badlaav’ (change) AAP had promised before the elections.

Such has been the clamour among AAP leaders to control Punjab’s truck unions that in few places there has even been public display of competitive aggression between various factions of the party to do so.

The Punjab Truck Operators’ Union has claimed that leaders owing allegiance to the new regime have taken control of as many as 30-32 truck unions and appointed their own men as presidents of these bodies without holding any elections.

There are 134 truck unions in Punjab, 90 of them in Malwa, the state’s biggest region where the AAP had performed exceptionally well in recent polls. “It’s in this region where AAP leaders have made most attempts to take control of the truck unions. In some places, there were clashes as well,” Punjab Truck Operators’ Union president Happy Sandhu told The Federal.

Sandhu pointed out that in previous governments too, the truckers’ bodies were always the first victims of regime change.

Considering that the AAP had promised to provide a transparent government, it was hoped that the party, once in power, would facilitate free and fair elections of truck unions and formulate a pro-truckers’ transport policy in consultation with all stakeholders, including industries.

“But there has been no change on the ground,” said Sandhu.

Questionable intentions

Sandhu claims that the president of a truck union, if he is dishonest, can earn up to Rs40-50 lakh a year by way of getting a ‘cut’ in government contracts. The fact that new presidents are being imposed on truck unions is a sufficient indication that the intentions of the leaders associated with the new regime are not good, believes Sandhu.

If this was not the case, there was no need to forcefully take over the unions. In many places, presidents so appointed are not even truck operators, Sandhu alleged. He added that people close to the establishment won transport contracts and controlled the unions under previous regimes too but the expectation from the AAP was of dismantling this system; something that doesn’t appear to be happening at least after the completion of AAP’s first month in office.

Apart from industrial towns, truckers in Punjab get a lot of business during procurement season of wheat and paddy to transport goods to government-run godowns. In most of these contracts, union presidents are involved at local level in loading and unloading of government procurements, he informed.

Sandhu added that, ideally speaking, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann must intervene and ask district collectors to supervise free and fair elections of truck unions in their areas. “Then he must call us for a meeting so that overall transport policy could be formulated for the welfare of the transporters,” he added.

From the industry’s point of view, the truck unions are also being blamed for area-specific cartelisation and arbitrary fixation of transportation rates.

Back in 2017, soon after the Congress came to power under Captain Amarinder Singh, it passed the Punjab Goods Carriages (Regulation and Prevention of Cartelisation) Rules, 2017, to prohibit truck operators from forming cartels in the state.

Sukhwinder Brar, a truck operator from Patiala, told The Federal that a proper transport policy is needed to de-politicise the unions so that concerns of both the industry as well as truck operators can be addressed.

Takeover tussle

The first incident of a forced union takeover was reported on March 27 from Bhawanigarh tehsil of Sangrur, the home district of Mann. The Bhawanigarh truck union is one of the biggest in the state because there is a Pepsi plant in the area from where a huge movement of finished goods takes place. AAP leaders captured the truck union president’s post here following clashes between different factions.

Then, on March 31, a similar incident was reported from Jaito in Faridkot district. Four persons were injured here when a clash broke out between members of two truck unions. The clash took place in the presence of AAP MLA Amolak Singh.

As per reports in the local media, similar fights erupted in Abohar and Moga. These clashes left at least 30 persons injured.

Political tug of war

The Opposition has got a handle to attack AAP as the local media has widely reported the involvement of AAP leaders in capturing truck unions. Congress MLA from Bholath, Sukhpal Khaira, who had first entered the Punjab assembly as an AAP MLA in 2017 and briefly served as Leader of Opposition before switching to the Congress, tweeted that AAP MLAs want to forcefully install loyalists, eyeing financial gains through truck union operations. “This was a clear cut violation of Kejriwal’s directions to his MLAs not to indulge in hooliganism,” he said.

Sandeep Jakhar, debutante Congress MLA from Abohar, too released a statement wondering: “Is this inquilab? Is this the change we voted for?”

SAD spokesperson Daljeet Cheema told The Federal that there was a feeling that the Mann government had given a clear signal to the Punjab police to allow AAP workers a free hand in their respective bids of forced take overs of various truck unions. “This is why we witnessed AAP leaders taking the law in their own hands at various places even as the police force remained mute spectators. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that the former Rampura Phul municipal councillor and AAP leader Surinder Bansal even tore the uniform of a SHO besides punching the officer in the face at Rampura police station recently,” Cheema alleged.

“The chief minister should devote appropriate time to take review meetings of the police force. Instructions should be passed to the police to maintain law and order strictly and not feel intimidated by AAP leaders,” he said.

Interestingly, AAP spokesperson Malvinder Kang told The Federal that some leaders still carry the mindset that they are at liberty to do anything after coming to power. “But the vision of our top leadership is very clear that they are not here to support hooliganism and corrupt practices of various regimes,” said Kang.

“As soon as the matter came to the notice of the chief minister, these incidents stopped,” Kang claimed. He also said the AAP government will frame a transparent mechanism after taking into confidence all stakeholders to ensure effective working of truck unions.